Scientists have revealed that four people, who recovered and were discharged from hospital following Covid-19 infection, have tested positive again.

The scientists say they are still investigating to find out whether this is being caused by re-infection or the test kits used to declare the said patients negative were faulty.

Dr Misaki Wayengera, the head of the scientific advisory committee to the Ministry of Health on Covid-19, told Daily Monitor yesterday that although the occurrence is not unique to Uganda, it is perplexing to scientists based on the short time it is occurring.

“Several cases like that [of recovered Covid-19 testing positive again] have been reported, there are around four cases right now. ….we don’t think the re-infection should occur after a very short time because they should still be having antibodies to fight off the infections,” he said.

Dr Wayengera said the exact reason why the patients are testing positive again cannot be established.

“We don’t want to rule out the fact that someone can get re-infected but we think the tests are probably picking up dead viruses. We saw something like this happening in South Korea,” he said.

“The test we use can pick up RNA (ribonucleic acid) from a dead virus. But even if someone has recovered, it takes time before the immune system removes virus RNA from the body,” he said, adding that testing someone again may show them still having the virus.